Welcome to CounterTobacco.org’s “News and Research Roundup!” Each month we post a summary of the latest research, reports, and news stories on counteracting tobacco product sales and marketing at the point of sale (POS). Keeping up with what’s happening in the POS movement all across the country can help you choose policies and strategies that work best for your community. New research can help provide support for your work and evidence for the importance of the “War in the Store.” Have a story you don’t want us to miss? E-mail it to us!

New Research

Youth Use

Using a regression model and data from the National Youth Tobacco Surveys from 1999-2013, researchers estimated that the 2009 ban on flavored cigarettes reduced the probability of becoming a smoker among youth by 17% and reduced the number of cigarettes smoked by youth smokers by 58%. However, the ban was associated with a 45% increase in youth use of menthol-flavored cigarettes, which were excluded from the ban, as well as a 34% increase in youth cigar use and a 55% increase in youth pipe use. While these numbers suggest that many tobacco users substituted another product for flavored cigarettes, overall, there was a 6% decline in the probability that youth using tobacco.

Following the 2012 implementation of the first stage of England’s point-of-sale tobacco display ban (in all large shops), 13% fewer youth ages 11-16 noticed tobacco displays in shops. However, after adjustment for other factors, researchers found no significant change in smoking susceptibility or uptake. Results have not yet been determined following the 2015 extension of the ban to all shops.

Based on data from the 2004-2014 National Youth Tobacco Surveys, a logistic regression model, the psychosocial model of smoking, and no significant change in youth cigarette smoking from 2009-2014, researchers found that the introduction of e-cigarettes was not associated with a decline in youth cigarette use. The authors conclude that e-cigarette only users would have been unlikely to initiate tobacco use with cigarettes.

The FDA’s “The Real Cost” youth-focused national media campaign potentially prevented 350,000 youth ages 11-18 from smoking during 2014-2016. High exposure the campaign was associated with a 30% decrease in risk for smoking initiation.

Adult Use and Disparities

Results from the nationally representative, longitudinal Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study, 27.5% of adults and 8.9% of youth were current tobacco users in 2013 and 2014. Of both adult and youth tobacco users, 40% used multiple tobacco products, and cigarettes and e-cigarettes were the most common combination. Tobacco use was higher among young adults, males, and members of racial and sexual minorities.

In a national cross-sectional online survey, researchers found that 39.7% of transgender adults reported higher current (past 30 day) use of any cigarette/cigar/e-cigarette product compared to 25.1% of cisgender adults. Specifically, 35.5% reported use of cigarettes, compared to 20.7% of cisgender adults, 26.8% reported use of cigars compared to 9.3% of cisgender adults, and 21.3% reported use of e-cigarettes, compared to 5% of cisgender adults. This was the first national US study to assess differences in tobacco use across gender identities separately from sexual orientation.

Price Promotions

Smokers who live In neighborhoods with more POS cigarette price promotions were more likely to report financial stress. Previous research has found that smokers with financial stress are less likely to successfully quit or attempt to quit smoking. The authors suggest that high exposure to POS cigarette price promotions may make it harder for smokers to quit.

Labeling

Adult cigarette smokers were more likely to believe that cigarettes are more harmful than e-cigarettes and express interest in dual use of the two products when told that cigarettes have more chemicals than e-cigarettes compared to smokers who were told cigarettes and e-cigarettes contained the same amount of chemicals. The authors suggest that disclosing the amount of chemicals in cigarettes and e-cigarettes could have the unintentional consequence of increasing dual use.